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TheLeviathan

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Everything posted by TheLeviathan

  1. TheLeviathan
    Embarrassment of riches clearly.
  2. TheLeviathan
    On whether he's worth locking up and forcing a move by someone to another position? Yes, I absolutely believe that is up in the air for a number of factors. To me, I wouldn't lock up Plouffe unless it was at the 4/30 mark being discussed. Anything more than that would depend on how likely Sano can stay at third and I'm not sure any of us have much of a clue about that one way or the other.
  3. TheLeviathan
    We have a DH spot manned by a guy with a sub .600 OPS. I'm not going to worry about things if Sano's bat forces the issue. But if Sano can play third, then I trade Plouffe, not extend him. But the notion you can just toss any dude out in RF and it'll be "ok" is one I couldn't disagree with more.
  4. TheLeviathan
    It's possible he could stick either place, moving him out of fear Plouffe might be a good player seems like exactly the kind of poor thinking that has plagued this team.
  5. TheLeviathan
    I'm confused as someone who generally agrees with you about outfield defense, why you are so comfortable just tossing a career infielder into RF and assuming it will work out. Plouffe's done a lot of great things. If we're ready to get Sano up, there is another young beast he could replace and Plouffe could stay right where he is. Or, we could give Sano a chance to keep refining his game and worry about 3B when he forces his hand.
  6. TheLeviathan
    My working theory is that most of the hype of minor league defensive prowess comes from national scouts and not so much the people working directly every day with the players. So a guy like Hicks gets almost a default boost based on his prospect status and then some national scout that seems him 5-10 games the whole season tries to take that small sample size and make generalizations based on it. Other than arm strength I'm just not sure how that is a reliable opinion. That doesn't mean the opinions aren't worth reading or considering, but it damn sure means to keep them in context. Remember, before Delmon Young hit a big league field there was talk of him being a CF option who would move to a corner and become elite. We all saw how that turned out. I don't form a good opinion of a player's defense by eye test without a considerable sample size just like the stats, I wouldn't trust even the well-trained eye of a scout to be all that much better in that narrow of a viewing period.
  7. TheLeviathan
    Great post. I had the same question and I wonder how often this happens to other teams. Plouffe was a similar issue and there may be others I'm not remembering either. Either way, it's made me take all defensive scouting reports on minor leagues with a giant grain of salt.
  8. TheLeviathan
    I believe Hicks can learn a lot in the next few months (and needs to), why is it so hard to believe that Pinto might do the same? Or the same as any other prospect that puts things together in the minors? Also, that 104 wRC+ ranks 13th in all of the big leagues for catchers with at least 30 ABs. So maybe "hitting well" is a bit of an overstatement, but replacement level is probably too far the other way.
  9. TheLeviathan
    This isn't really fair though. Most people are consistent in their philosophies towards this issue. Of course there is a wide spectrum of opinions that will constantly put Ryan as "right" in some eyes and "wrong" in others. I think most people critical of the front office are pretty consistent in how they do that. (With some exceptions that give all criticism a bad name, clearly) I don't see anyone here being inconsistent either, it's just a broad brush comment that doesn't seem to fit the discussion.
  10. TheLeviathan
    Right, Suzuki's play at this point is making anything Pinto does down there a non-factor until Suzuki is traded or hurt.
  11. TheLeviathan
    If you're going to jump a guy up as quick as Santana than you need to be really, really sure that what he needs can be found in AAA and not the bigs before you give up on that. To me, Santana looks like a kid that needs to knock the rust off but has the ability. Plouffe, by contrast, never looked like he had the tools to play SS. Santana does. But I will say this, if there is a reason to send Santana down I don't think it will be his glove. It'll be if his readjustment to the league's adjustment fails at the plate. But we need a considerable amount of time to make that determination.
  12. TheLeviathan
    Or the way he had to unbuckle the cement shoes before he made that "effort".
  13. TheLeviathan
    We've seen worse CF plans......
  14. TheLeviathan
    If Alex Meyer can't come up for control issues, there is no way in hell Hicks should be coming up with splits like that. Let Hicks figure it out in AAA until June, the CF disaster shouldn't be fixed by rushing him for a third time. It should've been fixed sometime in the last three years with someone else.
  15. TheLeviathan
    The worst part is, so long as this is the starting nine...it likely ain't getting any better either. This isn't just a tough few games, this is what we should expect from this group of defenders. That's scary.
  16. TheLeviathan
    We're a long way from solid much less sugar plums.
  17. TheLeviathan
    Is Bremer allergic to saying that's Torii's fault? It's not "on the outfield" - it's on Torii.
  18. TheLeviathan
    Every time Smith comes up I point this out: If Wilson Ramos hadn't gotten hurt (a refrain that has continued by the way), there was strong talk that we were about to package him and Aaron Hicks as part of a deal for Cliff Lee. A) That's a deal TR would've NEVER even been strongly rumored to make and Regardless of whether that move would've gotten us a World Series, I'd go back and make that deal 100 times out of 100 knowing what I know now. Just goes to show how radically things can change.
  19. TheLeviathan
    Then he should've better communicated that plan to his successor.
  20. TheLeviathan
    I have a hard time blaming Smith for the Santana deal, that situation is 90% on Ryan for the crappy position he left it in. Smith had better options, true, but that's a crappy spot to be stuck in a month into a high profile job you have no experience at. Ryan should've handled that before he resigned.
  21. TheLeviathan
    That is one of the funniest things I've read in awhile. Awesome.
  22. TheLeviathan
    I think there is reason to be suspicious of his PED use last year given the injury and I'd venture to guess there have been many career year, soon to be free agents that likely had similar benefits. I understand your concern with how teams might react to having the power to void contracts, I agree that shouldn't go unchecked. Step one needs to be more testing and I agree that drug testing should be a part of every FA physical. Those are good first steps.
  23. TheLeviathan
    That would be an awfully hard thing to do and it is a little far-fetched to be taken seriously as a flaw with the argument. It's far more likely that many players are deliberately orchestrating situations like Santana's where they dope up knowing they won't be tested in order to cash in big time at the expense of their team and other players. I think one of the things that might help avoid the unlikely situation you're talking about, though, is more frequent testing. If players are tested more frequently by independent agencies they'll be better able to narrow the window in which their test was dirty, thereby allowing them to raise a grievance if they think there was some Belicheckian plot with a towel guy in the weight room. And, going further, even if there was a sudden pile of aging, bad contract guys magically testing positive - that would raise the red flag the other direction. But right now that's not the problem, the problem is we have guys knowingly cheating their way into contracts that hurt the teams they sign with. There needs to be something teams can do to counter that to punish those offenders.
  24. TheLeviathan
    Well it could be fairly easy, a failed drug test is administered by the league so the league is in charge of the entire process. It's not like a team can dig dirt on a player and use that against them, but there could be a rule in the next CBA that all contracts are subject to being voided in the event of a failed drug test. It'll never happen because the players association talks a tough game about drug abusers but has fought the process tooth and nail despite many of their own members agreeing with changes. But I think the option should be on the table for teams in an event like this. Other than preposterous conspiracy theories there is really no way for a team to know, with certainty, a guy is cheating but for league drug screenings. There should be some sort of protection on the backend against that risk given that players aren't screened nearly as regularly as they should be.
  25. TheLeviathan
    Their value isn't merely a function of their profit margin. Yes, they're making money, but that doesn't mean you want your seats empty and your home market becoming indifferent to your product. They should be driven by improvement to keep fan interest, but it's certainly arguable that they've gone about doing that poorly.
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